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Summary

Site of the wreck of the London which went aground in 1796. Early newspaper reports say she was bound from St. Kitts with a considerable number of French prisoners of war on board.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS54NW/147
• Pastscape: 878080
• Tide Project: 29/09/2020

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WRECK (XVIII - 1796 AD to 1796 AD)

Full description

Larn, R., 1974, Devon Shipwrecks, 210 (Monograph). SDV741.

The transport, 'London' carrying British troops and French Prisoners of War lost in Rapparee Cove October 10 1796

Longhurst, J., 1978, Coins in North Devon (Correspondence). SDV84823.

The London is reported to have run aground on the Rapparee rocks during a storm in 1796, possibly October 9th. It was thought that the wreck was not entirely due to the storm and that the vessel was plundered by the locals who became known as Coombe Sharks. Coin find may be associated with the wreck.

Mills, A., 1995 - 2009, The Wreck of the London at Rapparee Cove, Ilfracombe - Summary of Historical Evidence (Un-published). SDV346521.

Site of the wreck of the London which went aground October 10 1796. Early newspaper reports say she was bound from St. Kitts with a considerable number of French prisoners of war from the Caribbean campaigns on board. Around 50 prisoners were drowned. Lloyds list (no 2863) refers to the London sailing from St. Lucia. The reported number of people drowned vary between the news reports. Some of the reports also indicate that smugglers were responsible for the ship being wrecked rather than the bad weather. According to a venerable witness, everything that could be saved was duly accounted for to those whom it concerned. As well as can be now ascertained, the valuables on board were contained in five boxes, there was specie, in doubloons, dollars etc. -one of which was lost in the transit from the ship and was no doubt broken up at the bottom of the sea, as dollars and doubloons continued to be found in the sand years after the ship was lost.

See subsheets for possible associated finds.

Blue, L, 1997, Maritime archaeology in Britain and Ireland 1996 (Article in Serial). SDV361583.

Rapparee Cove near Ilfracombe. Graves, bones and fetters exposed on the shore. Thought to belong to The London.

Horner, B., 1997, Military Campaigns in the French West Indies (Unknown). SDV363864.

Note on the Caribbean context of the wreck of the London.

North Devon District Council, 1998, Restoring the Heritage of Ilfracombe Harbour. Business Plan, 11 (Un-published). SDV347082.

Collings, A. G. + Manning, P. T. + Valentin, J., 2007, The North Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Phase 1. Archaeological Survey. Summary Report, No. 1387 (Report - Assessment). SDV339712.

Site of the wreck of the London which went aground October 10 1796. Early newspaper reports say bound from St. Kitts with a considerable number of black French prisoners of war from the Caribbean campaigns. Approximately 50 prisoners drowned. Also reported as carrying British troops.

National Monument Record, 2014, Pastscape, 878080 (Website). SDV355682.

A number of contemporary newspaper reports including the Exeter Flying Post, the Sherborne Mercury and the Chronical reported on the wreck of the London in 1796. One such report wrote, 'This evening a very melancholy accident happened at Ilfracombe: a ship called the LONDON, from St. Kitts [sic] having on board a considerable number of blacks (French prisoners) was driven on the rocks, near the entrance of the pier, by a violent gale of wind, by which about 50 of the prisoners were drowned; those who got on shore exhibited a most wretched spectacle; and the scene altogether was too shocking for description'.

Two hundred years later, in 1997, newspapers reported that human bones were discovered when part of a sea wall at Rapparee Beach collapsed. The bones are undergoing DNA analysis by Bristol University archaeologists in the hope they can identify where the people originated from and if indeed they belonged to the London, other wrecks, or local fishermen. Please see the report for further details.

Historic England, 2018, Wreck of the Week: The wreck of the London, 1796: what happened next (Website). SDV365219.

The author sheds new light on the fate of the prisoners of war who escaped from the wreck of the London. This blog was written for Black History Month, 2018.

The London is often described as a ‘slaver’ carrying a cargo of gold and Caribbean slaves or prisoners to be sold in Bristol. This legend is helped along by the periodic exposure of both coins (one of which is definitively Roman, so clearly antedates the wreck) and human remains at the cove. In 1997 a rescue dig at the cove uncovered more human remains, which were believed to be associated with the passengers and crew of the London.

On 14th October 1796, a letter informed the War Office that the London had been wrecked at Ilfracombe and that the Surrey Fencibles had been sent from Barnstaple to guard the surviving prisoners. Casualties were estimated at one private and two sergeants of the 66th Regiment and 31 black soldiers (prisoners) dead, plus around 40 of the London’s crew.

Thirty of the London’s prisoners, including one woman, were then taken to Stapleton Prison, arriving there in December. The timescale between the wreck and the prisoners’ arrival at Bristol suggests that they may have been held somewhere else before arriving at Bristol. The Stapleton prison register records that these thirty prisoners were captured on Grenada and St. Vincent. Other survivors from the London may have been sent to Mill Prison, or possibly to join the over two thousand Black prisoners of war at Portchester Castle.

The prison register for Stapleton records that all prisoners arriving from the London, both Black and European, were exchanged for captured British soldiers via the ‘cartel’ vessels Nancy and Smallbridge.

Historic England, 2022, Historic England Research Record, 1078671 (Website). SDV365221.

A number of human bones were found on the beach at Rapparee Cove in 1997. It has been suggested that they belong to the victims of the wreck of the London, wrecked at Rapparee Cove in 1796, a cartel or prisoner-of-war exchange ship, bringing French prisoners back from St. Lucia or St. Kitts during the Napoleonic Wars. Subsequent DNA testing, which remains unpublished was inconclusive but sugessted that the bones were those of white European origin and may be the remains of local fishermen or from other known wrecks at Rapparee Cove such as the wreck carrying the original 'rapparees' (Irish Jacobite soldiers), lost in 1691, or the wreck of a Portuguese vessel, the Bom Successo, wrecked in 1780.
See report for full details.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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